Novak Djokovic did not arrive in Cincinnati needing an introduction. He was 45-13 at the event, had won it three times, had not lost there since 2019 and was riding a 10-match winning streak. The last time he played the tournament, he survived Carlos Alcaraz in that brutal 2023 final and left with the title.

Three years later, Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner were both out, Djokovic was the third seed, and the path had suddenly opened up. For most of his career, these were the weeks he punished everyone for giving him an opening. That is why what happened next looked so bad.

Cincinnati was set up for another Djokovic run. Instead, it exposed just how quickly a favorable draw can stop mattering when the body starts giving way.

Playing his first match since a Wimbledon semifinal loss to Sinner five weeks earlier, Djokovic was dumped out 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 by Argentina’s Thiago Agustin Tirante. The upset was bad enough on its own. What made it more concerning was the way Djokovic physically faded in the Ohio heat, turning what should have been a routine opening assignment into a fight against both Tirante and his own body.

Djokovic survived 13 break points, but the rest of the numbers were ugly. He piled up 40 unforced errors and seven double faults, while his 25 winners and five aces were not enough to offset Tirante’s 40 winners and 13 aces. Over two hours and 44 minutes, Djokovic kept himself alive more through resistance than control, and the scoreline only tells part of how uncomfortable the match became.

Djokovic Vomiting Mid-Match

That physical struggle became impossible to ignore in the second set. Djokovic appeared to vomit during a changeover, bending over a towel as a trainer and physio rushed over. From there, the warning signs kept piling up. Around the one-hour, 33-minute mark, the 39-year-old removed his shirt, pressed an ice pack to his head and used an inhaler as the Ohio heat continued to wear him down.

The physio checked him once again with Tirante serving at 1-2 down in the second set, but there was no more further treatment, and Djokovic just played on. There was a huge difference in the energy level of the 24-time Grand Slam champion, who raced through his opening set in 44 minutes. 

And Cincinnati had already seen this kind of heat-related collapse before. Cincinnati’s heat had already wrecked another player a year earlier. In 2025, Cameron Norrie battled 33°C (91°F) temperatures and heavy humidity against Roberto Bautista Agut, started feeling sick late in the first set, and eventually left the court to vomit. He came back, but admitted he had almost nothing left physically and lost 6-4, 6-3. So when Djokovic began breaking down in similar conditions, it was not an isolated incident.

And the heat was only part of the punishment. Djokovic’s next problem was a game that simply refused to end.

The longest game of the Masters 1000 season

The third game of the second set became the match’s breaking point. Locked at 1-1, Djokovic and Tirante dragged through a brutal 17 minutes and 51 seconds, the longest single game at the Masters 1000 level in 2026. For Djokovic, already struggling physically, it was exactly the kind of grind he could least afford.

The game turned into a grind, stretching through nine deuces as Tirante earned four break-point chances. Djokovic erased all four but wasted three game points of his own before finally escaping on his seventh opportunity when Tirante sent a forehand long. He moved two points closer to the finish line, but the effort clearly took something out of him.

Something similar happened earlier in the season at Indian Wells. Djokovic and defending champion Jack Draper were tied at one set apiece when a brutal 26-shot rally in the opening game of the decider turned into one of the points of the tournament. Djokovic won the rally, but later said it drained him and contributed to his collapse.

It took everything out of the 39-year-old, as he lay flat on the court for a while after that point. Putting all of his energy into the final set at a very early stage emptied his tank, making it hard to sustain the rest of the match.

Tirante was not just watching Djokovic run out of gas. He was punishing him for it.

Tirante unleashed the fastest forehand of the Masters 1000 season

After a set point was thrown against Tirante in the first set, the Argentine didn’t play safe. Instead, he sent a forehand spinning at 193 kmph (120 mph), saving the point and immediately making it the fastest forehand of the season at the Masters 1000 level. 

Despite that, Djokovic ended up claiming that first set 6-2, and even though his body wasn’t always on board, he was still the better player for much of the time.

Djokovic’s remarkable record after winning the first set finally came to an end

Djokovic had spent two decades making first-set leads feel almost automatic, going 355-13 at Masters 1000 events after taking the opener, a 96.5 percent conversion rate. Tirante somehow joined the tiny group that cracked that formula, becoming just the 14th player in 20 years to come back from a set down against him. Even more jarring, he became only the second player ranked outside the top 30 to beat Djokovic in Cincinnati. For a player who built his reputation on choking off matches once he got ahead, this was the kind of collapse that stood out for all the wrong reasons.

The loss came at the same tournament where Djokovic made his ATP Masters 1000 main-draw debut in 2005, while Tirante joined fellow Argentine Diego Serra among the rare players to hand him an early Cincinnati exit.

Djokovic sounded uncertain about returning to Cincinnati ever again

This was Djokovic’s 16th trip to Cincinnati, a place where he had already collected three titles and endured five runner-up finishes. But this time, the bigger story was not another trophy chase. It was whether Cincinnati had just seen the last of him. At 39, Djokovic openly admitted he was not sure there would be a 17th appearance at the Lindner Family Tennis Center.

“I certainly hope so, but it looks more likely not, unfortunately. But let’s see what the future brings. It’s just a condition that I have, health-wise, that has been bothering me for the past couple of years. A lot of issues, especially when it is humid and it is hot,” he explained, adding that nerves likely made it worse. 

On the result itself, he stayed measured. “Congrats to my opponent. It was not an enjoyable match for me, for sure. The way I felt. Not the first and I guess not the last time, but it is what it is.”

The heat and humidity of Cincinnati tested Serbian’s fitness. With the US Open now just two weeks away, Djokovic’s fitness heads into New York with some alarming questions raised.